Several preschools exist in Hays, area

By DIANE GASPER-O'BRIEN

Hays Daily News

There are nearly 150 options for daycare for children in Ellis County, and several of those include preschools.

The Hays Area Children's Center Resource and Referral Agency maintains a database of child-care providers in an eight-county area.

And Ellis County parents and guardians can choose from daycares in private residences, some which include preschool programs as well, to larger programs run out of churches and other centers, as well as in public and private schools.

Jenny Mitchell, director of the resource and referral agency, said it can help parents find the best fit for them.

“If a parent is needing childcare, for infant, toddler, after school care, summer care, preschooler, we have all that in our database,” Mitchell said.

That is a free listing for parents, and the agency also has a support system that includes a lending library of about 1,400 pieces of materials comprised of children's literature books, resource books to further development, puzzles and theme boxes.

Mitchell said that the theme boxes are popular and valuable learning tools because they include books and other materials that support the particular theme. For example, a farm theme box includes such things as fences, cattle and horses and other things that one would find on a farm.

“You can make a learning activity out of it,” she said, “while still having fun.”

Mitchell said that there is proof of the positive effects of getting an early start.

“There is documentation that one of the ways to improve test scores is early childhood education,” said Donna Hudson-Hamilton, director of Hays Head Start, an income-eligible early childhood/preschool program that serves families in six northwest Kansas counties, including Ellis County.

“It's vitally important,” Hamilton added. “And other documentation shows that for every dollar invested in quality development programs, society saves $10 later on.”

Sandra Henningsen, who started the Learning Lane Preschool in the Methodist Church last fall, said she thought it was important to open another preschool in Hays after long-time preschool teacher Louise Younger retired and closed the Wee Friends Preschool last spring.

“The higher percentage of children going into school know a lot more these days, and I think they just expect you to know so much more in kindergarten (than in the past),” Henningsen said. “Now, you get to kindergarten and you're thrown right into academics, so we work really hard on getting along with each other and sharing. My main focus is social and emotional.”

Mitchell said she is glad to see that there is “better education out there now,” for providers, “more opportunities for training.”

“The quality of care has definitely improved as providers, whether it's family or a center or preschool directors or employees,” Mitchell said.

For more information, contact the resource and referral agency at (785) 625-3257 or toll free at (888) 351-3589.

Reporter Diane Gasper-O'Brien can be reached at (785) 628-1081, ext. 126, or by e-mail at

dobrien@dailynews.net.